Artificial intelligence tools can be integrated into math class in ways that enhance instruction without replacing teachers or diminishing students’ learning.
That was a key takeaway from educators and researchers at a June Seat at the Table webinar on AI’s evolving role in math education.
“The whole conversation starts around pedagogy,” said Matthew Karabinos, a 6th grade math and science teacher and a webinar speaker.
He advises fellow teachers to first assess their instructional goals and delivery methods and then determine how AI tools might be meaningfully integrated into that work.
In addition to showcasing creative ways AI can be used in math instruction, speakers also addressed the role developing technologies play in the future of teaching, both by preparing the next generation of teachers and by supporting teachers’ professional growth.
Using AI to refine curriculum and streamline tasks
In his own experiments with AI tools, Karabinos taught himself how to create a program that could both test students’ fact fluency and provide him with real-time data on their scores.
He stressed that teachers don’t have to be tech experts to be able to creatively use AI tools. Success often boils down to knowing how to frame precise requests from generative AI tools and assess the quality of something like a quiz sheet that AI tools produce.
He added that professional development focusing on practical uses of AI tools can be most helpful for teachers at the beginning stages of experimenting with the technology.
One of the biggest benefits AI can offer math teachers now is freeing up time for teaching by having AI tools automate more monotonous tasks, webinar speakers said. But as technology further advances, the potential could go further.
Heather Hill, a professor of teacher learning and practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education who is studying AI use in teacher preparation, said that soon AI tools will be able to help teachers detect patterns in students’ learning.
For instance, if a student doesn’t understand division of fractions, many teachers just go back and reteach the content. But AI tools could help identify that the student better understands this math concept when shown content in a particular way or when the teacher uses a specific line of questioning.
Expanding AI’s role in teacher training
Feedback from AI tools isn’t necessarily limited to students, Hill said. It can also help prepare the next generation of classroom teachers.
Her current grant-funded research looks at using AI to give teachers automated feedback on their mathematics lessons. Teachers record a math lesson, upload it to a specific platform, and get feedback, such as how much student reasoning is going on in their classroom. Math coaches can use these feedback notes for more engaging conversations with teachers, Hill said.
She’s also working with fellow researchers on building a virtual teaching simulator, where preservice teachers will be able to log on, get some students in the room, and practice teaching.
“Being able to simulate students gives you the possibility of trying out the stuff you need to do with kids before you actually get in the classroom and do it,” Hill said.
AI as a support for teachers, not a substitute
Janel Vancas, the director of curriculum innovation at Appalachia Intermediate Unit 8 in Altoona, Pa., argues that even as AI technology advances, students will still need a trained teacher in the classroom.
“AI certainly is there to enhance, to support, to take some of the redundancies out of learning and teaching, but it’s certainly not going to replace the value that the teacher can bring to the process,” Vancas said.
Karabinos said that as more students continue to use AI tools in and out of the classroom, his hope as a teacher is to impart the skills they need to discern whether the things AI tools produce are good or not.
He also reminds his students that while AI tools can be useful and helpful in the moment, they shouldn’t offload their learning to AI.
